I think you should be thankful you're not living in India or one of the poorer countries in Africa. I don't think you're grateful for what you do have, and focusing too much on negative things.
I don't know that. I see Josho already pointed out how New Zealand has achieved what so many other countries thought was impossible.
I do not know that. Parliament voted on the measure to extend the state of emergency. They were voted into office democratically; and if you object to that, then you may be person who's opposed to democracy. I say don't give up on democracy, vote them out of office if you don't like them.
I don't know the exact numbers, but I think it safe to assume that those two statistics are related.
Elsewhere you were talking about how you couldn't visit an island where there is no coronavirus. I was shocked, I was honestly shocked. You were thinking about what you wanted and not about what was best for the people on that island. You were willing to risk spreading coronavirus to that island if it was something that pleased you; and even if you know you don't have the virus, you can't guarantee that if they allowed visitors in that all of them were free of it. Sooner or later, someone with the virus would enter the island unless reasonable measures were taken.
I can't predict if the government will mandate a vaccine; but I know small pox was eliminated from the world only because governments forced people to get vaccinated. The whole world is free from it now. If even one small pocket had been permitted to exist, it would have spread again to the rest of the world. I know what I'd do: If anyone wanted to travel in or out of the country, he'd have to show proof of being vaccinated. And if someone declined to get vaccinated, I might let him die -- I wouldn't want the government paying his medical bills -- and if he spread it to other unvaccinated people, I'd prosecute him for public endangerment.
I think you should be prepared to be pleasantly surprised. You still have a democracy in Australia. I confess I think some strange things happen in Australian politics; but you can still vote people out.
My concern at the moment is over China. I wonder if China is behind a social media campaign to sow doubt and discord in Australia. I'm not saying they are; but it wouldn't surprise me, not when I see what other things China is doing to Australia and its citizens. They're doing more than just arresting journalists. I see they finally let the Australian journalists leave the country -- after holding them several days. But then again, China says
Australia has detained Chinese journalists and seized "device" to see what was on them.
I've little doubt that China is trying to disrupt Australia using social media. The Canberra Times says they're using mostly WeChat to make Chinese people in Australia feel paranoid. I'm wondering if some of that paranoia is spilling over into the non-Chinese people.
The social messaging system helping spread Chinese disinformation campaigns
Protecting elections would mean boosting attempts to monitor WeChat, including employing Chinese language speakers to watch the spread of information. People who spread disinformation must be penalised, otherwise WeChat would be used more as a low-cost, high-benefit strategy to undermine Australia's democracy.
Professor Rob Ackland, at the Australian National University, said he and University of Canberra researcher Mathieu O'Neil had studied about 70 troll accounts active in the Australian political sphere in 2015 and 2016.
The accounts were from the Russian Internet Research Agency. He didn't give details but said one had used the account to build influence with relatively innocuous tweets that changed once an audience had been garnered.
A number of troll accounts had been focused on refugees, again starting with relatively mainstream views, but morphing over time to send more insidious messages, such as comparing Manus Island asylum seekers with Islamic state terrorists.
Associate Professor O'Neil said they had followed one troll for a year to analyse the modus operandi.
